The Village Of La Libertad

The community of La Libertad consists of the indigenous people from the Yagua tribe. The first families to settle the village (in the year 1997) came from further up the river in Peru. The main language of the people is Spanish.

The village numbers about 300 people. They live mainly on money from tourism activities, small food crops, and government aid. The children attend school in the village until the fifth grade, after which they must travel to other larger villages, and eventually to the city for high school. There is a shortage of clean drinking water, inadequate access to health care, and poor sanitation. A diesel generator in the village supplies electrical power for 6 hours per day. There is cell phone coverage to parts of the village, but the signal is frequently lost, and spotty at best.

There are no roads connecting La Libertad to other communities. However, overland travel is possible, with difficulty, on small jungle trails. The Amazon River is the village’s main mode of transportation; travel being in small paddle boats, launches with small outboard motors, or large speed boats that regularly pass the village 3 times a days.